mindfulness

Lay down on your back on a carpet or on a yoga mat. Just relax and follow your breath for a while. Then  try to feel the whole of your body. Do that for a while and then try to relax one part of the body after the other. You can start with the toes of the left foot. Feel the toes, are they cold or warm, can you feel when they touch each other? Then take a deep breath into the toes, feel them and leave them with your out breath. In that way you can scan the whole of your body from part to part. Go from the toes to the head. Stay some minutes with each part. Can you feel the heart, the hands, even the brain? Make friends with your body. If thoughts come just once again concentrate on the body. You can end the scan trying to breath with the whole of your body. The whole scan can take up to 20 minutes. This is an exircises inspired by Jon Kabbat- Zinn. You can find his records here and there. Try this for a week and I'm sure you will enjoy it.

The philosopher Martin Buber wrote about relations: You should look at another person as a subject, not as a thing, an object. At least as often as possible. When you really meet someone, you will change, but you don't want to change the other person. He writes; "In the beginning was the relation". The most important aspect for a human is other humans and nature. But he also writes; "Without It man cannot live. But the one who lives only with this view is not human." Sometimes we have to look at others as objects, but then again you should shift to the You-I view. Sometimes we have to cut down a tree, but we shouldn't do it all the time.   But if you look at this topic in a deeper level, it´s possible to say; You and I are the same. We are all one. So if you condemn another being you are condemning yourself. If you hurt someone - you hurt yourself and so on..... But perhaps it's necessary to separate this two levels; you cannot meditate a

You have to start with yourself. If you don't love yourself you can´t love other people. I you condemn yourself you will condemn other people. With the help of mindfulness you can examine your thoughts. If you find a condemning thought, fine, you can give it a title; "a condemning thought" and then let it be, let it pass. Concentrate on the breath and let the thoughts come and go. It does not matter if you are condemning yourself or others - it is just a thought, it is not you! Perhaps you can imagine that you are a magnificent being - because we all are! Anita Moorjani knows a lot about these things - she had a NDE and was then healed from severe cancer. You can read and listen to her story here: http://anitamoorjani.com  Two of her messages are; don't take yourself too seriously and try to live in the present time as often as possible...